Building DVD Images of Ubuntu Repositories

“This howto offers a simple way of creating DVD images of Debian or Ubuntu http/ftp repositories. Ubuntu doesn’t offer DVDs ready to download with its main, universe, multiverse and/or restricted repositories. With the contents of this howto you can do it yourself. Having the Ubuntu or Debian repositories on DVD can be useful for those users who don’t have access to the Internet where they have their Ubuntu installed but have access somewhere else to download the repository and build and burn the DVDs.”

The average person who is trying to make a complete local repository to burn on DVD and use offline is unlikely to be using a LINUX machine, they will likely be at the local internet cafe or their public library…usually in those situations there isn’t a way to apt-get anything because the machines these users are stuck with a machine running Windows and nine times out of ten those machines are secured by a paper MCE “administrator” who recoils in terror at the mention of Linux.

What would be useful for someone in the situation the summary describes is a Windows program or a method by which the operations discussed in the article could be performed in Windows. So that way the user could grab what files he needs from the repository and take them home for install on say…. oh I dunno… his Linux running Laptop that needs a few files in order to get the thrice %$#@ WiFi to work again and they can continue on from there….

To make a bootable DVD… I just make a custom install with the mini-iso (8mb) networkinstall of ubuntu. Add all packages i need (download only) through apt. Install dvd-tools. And burn the /var/apt/cache dpkg´s to an dvd (uses up about 3gb) along with the mini-iso stuff. And volia. Its maybe not the correct way to do it. But it works for me, and it works very well.

Ubuntu offers a DVD download but that only includes the main repository (dunno what they’ll do if it becomes too big to fit on one disc). To get all of universe you have to burn (I think) 3 or 4 DVDs worth of packages.

As impressive as it is, Universe is not supported by Canonical. It’s community supported, which I bet usually means taken straight from Debian.

So here’s hoping Ubuntu kills off Debian quickly, Debian is dying/not relevant, Ubuntu has so much software etc. etc.[/sarcasm]

If Debian topples under its weight, hopefully Canonical can step up and support Universe. Otherwise They will have done a lot of harm. Bit OT I know, but it’s on my mind with so many people hyping Ubuntu and denigrating Debian. They both have their place, so preferable they can continue to exist (and I think they will)

it’s on my mind with so many people hyping Ubuntu and denigrating Debian

“””

You are reading something into my post that is not there.

I’m not denigrating Debian.

Canonical has done some very common sense things on top of a solid Debian base to make it appeal to a broader audience. And they have cultivated a warm, friendly, knowledgeable, and ever helpful community to help new Linux users get started.

They’ve done nothing that was not obvious to anyone who really wanted to popularize Linux and they have done nothing that Debian proper could not have done.

*If* Debian had wanted Ubuntu-like popularity they could have achieved it if they had been willing to do the very common sense things necessary to attain it.

So I call “sour grapes” on those who moan about Ubuntu’s popularity.

But it is important to remember that this is all done on top of a Debian core, and that the relationship *is* quite symbiotic.

Universe is community supported, yes. And that likely does mean the Debian community, of which Canonical and Ubuntu users are a part.

If Debian topples under its own weight it would be a great tragedy, but hardly Ubuntu’s fault.

In fact, it seems to me that as the first really strong Debian based distro, Ubuntu has given Debian a badly needed kick in the pants, a complimentary reality check, and that Debian is better off for it.

Personally, considering the family of distros which are based upon Debian, I honestly think that Debian should consider adopting a style similar to the Linux Kernel.

By that I mean that perhaps they should formalize their position as a proto-distro, continuously developing Debian Unstable and Debian Testing, letting other entities do the polishing and final release work, and not try to do end user releases themselves.

I’m not accusing *you* of all that stuff (you’re reading something inty my post), your post just happened to remind me of it. You can’t say that sort of thing isn’t floating around And yeah, collapsing under one’s own weight by definition can’t really be blamed on anyone else. But I don’t think devs jumping ship helps (even though Debian takes blame for that. Ubuntu just gives them somewhere more appealing to go). Anyway, not so much sour grapes as hoping that Ubuntu can take over if it needs to. See previous post.

Interesting idea letting others do the polishing, though of course Debian itself probably wouldn’t like it hehe

What I find amusing in this situation is that the original release schedule (targeted for the beginning of December 2006) aimed to cut down the real-world testing time and to release Etch with more or less up-to-date versions of applications. Now the four-months long delay has allowed a lot of extra real-world testing to reveal many hidden bugs to be fixed and, as a result, the Etch release has become another rock-solid high quality release — the kind that Debian is known and appreciated for. The applications, of course, are not quite as up-to-date now as they were four months ago — but this, again, is not anything unusual for a stable Debian release.

Some commentators have chanted doom and gloom for Debian because of the delayed Etch release and they’ve predicted Debian’s immediate death. But it’s precisely this delay that has greatly improved the quality in Etch. Amusing, isn’t it? 😉

And besides, eventually they are going to run out of Toy Story characters and won’t have a choice. 😉

If they waited another year or two for an Etch release, bugs would *still* be getting filed at that time. It would have been pretty amazing if the bug reports had just stopped after November, wouldn’t it? So I’m not sure what point you are trying to make. That they should wait until there are no bug reports to release?

Secondly, release plans for next week or no, it’s nowhere near too late for the “Fat Lady” to come down with a nasty case of laryngitis.

All it would take would be for someone to reread the GPL, thinking that they had noticed something that nobody else had noticed before, and posting their thoughts to debian-legal. The resulting uncertainty, hysteria, and consequent flame fest, could easily hold off the actual release for at least a year… because Debian is Debian. 😉

If they waited another year or two for an Etch release, bugs would *still* be getting filed at that time. It would have been pretty amazing if the bug reports had just stopped after November, wouldn’t it? So I’m not sure what point you are trying to make. That they should wait until there are no bug reports to release?

The key words in my post were “real-world testing”. If you release with very up-to-date software, you get can’t get much real-world testing. And if there’s more real-world testing, software tends to be less up-to-date because the real-world testing takes time. Real-world testing allows users to report problems and if the reported problems get fixed, you get a more solid release. To sum up: delays are not necessarily all bad, they can increase the quality of the release.

Secondly, release plans for next week or no, it’s nowhere near too late for the “Fat Lady” to come down with a nasty case of laryngitis.

Personally, considering the family of distros which are based upon Debian, I honestly think that Debian should consider adopting a style similar to the Linux Kernel.

By that I mean that perhaps they should formalize their position as a proto-distro, continuously developing Debian Unstable and Debian Testing, letting other entities do the polishing and final release work, and not try to do end user releases themselves.